Running Royalty delivered, plus considering the Bideford Half

I mentioned in a previous post that I had been in touch with Amby Burfoot about getting a signed copy of his book.  We exchanged a couple of emails, and he posted the book out to me and it arrived yesterday, with the below message.

I must say, I'm really gobsmacked by this as Amby Burfoot did all the correspondence and posted the book out himself (his signature was on the postage label).

The book arriving put a little spring in my step on yesterday's run.  I did just over 8 miles in target half-marathon pace and felt good.  I purposefully "held back" a little bit at the start and finished the run strongly which is what I am really hoping to do at Bideford.  The splits were:

1  8:10.7
2  7:50.7
3  7:49.4
4  8:06.2
5  7:56.6
6  7:56.8
7  7:51.5
8  7:44.8

I've been trying to find a reliable profile of the Bideford Half Marathon course that I'm running this weekend, but I've been struggling a little bit.  I haven't noticed this before, but I've found a few courses on the Garmin Connect site of last year's race; however, the profiles seem to vary quite wildly for the same course.  It seems the profile feature on some watches isn't that accurate; certainly the second diagram can't be correct unless the person was swimming the course and then climbed out on the 10-mile mark!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154859150

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154828856

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154918112

Diagrams 1 and 3 do seem fairly similar, with Diagram 1 being a "smoother" profile, which is similar to the profiles that get generated from my own watch, whereas Diagram 3 seems more "jagged".  I wonder if the differences are to do with how often the different watches measure the elevation?  There are still some differences though, particularly around mile 7 where diagram 3 shows a steep decline and the incline at mile 9 on Diagram 3 seems a lot steeper.

Broadly, it looks like I'll be keeping the below in mind:

- take it easy until about mile 2.8.

- there is a hill at around 2.8-3.2 mile, with the corresponding descent from 3.4-3.8 mile

- from about 4 mile to mile 10 it is fairly flat, with a hill at 6.2 miles.

- there is a descent from mile 10 to 11

- it is fairly flat (but tending to an incline) from 11 to the finish, with a small hill at about 12.2 and 12.4 miles.

I got an email from the Bideford Half organisers...apparently, there are 34 Teignbridge Trotters that are currently in the race!

A quick 5-miler

After a strange week where I haven't really overly enjoyed my running, I had the final session of the week which in my plan was down as "5 mile easy".  I took it relatively easy yesterday and although I did have a couple of beers yesterday I wasn't feeling too bad this morning and was "up for" a run.  However,  it was very cold and there was even some light snow in the air, so the signs weren't pointing towards it being a particularly great run!

I covered my Garmin and decided to go for a quick tempo session to see what I could do.  For the 5-mile effort, I managed 07:30 min/mile which is pretty good for me.  So, all in all, I've finished this week's running on a relative high so I'm pleased.

I am due to run Bideford Half Marathon next weekend, and it's billed as another quick course.  I think there are around 30-40 Trotters attending the event, and I am secretly hoping for another PB but it will depend on how it goes on the day (as always!).  As I have been so tired this week and little bit "off" the running, I was thinking about playing the training by ear up until the half and I'm still going to do that.  My plan currently has so I'll see how that goes:
- 10, including some tempo
- 2 lots of 5
- 13.1 on race day.

I did have to move things around a bit on my plan, because the Half Marathon next weekend didn't fall in with the planned long run that weekend for which a 20-miler is scheduled.  That is the reason I did 20 on this week's LSR as I knew I wouldn't be able to get that mileage in next week.

I mentioned a few posts ago that I had been in touch with Amby Burfoot with regard to him sending me a signed copy of his book.  Well, he has emailed me saying that he has posted the book, so hopefully that will be with me soon!!

A brush with running royalty, plus other things

A few weeks ago, Marathon Talk interviewed Amby Burfoot.  For those who may not know, Amby Burfoot won the Boston marathon in 1968, has been involved in running his whole life and is editor at large of Runner's World (US).  In running circles, he is pretty much royalty.

Anyway, on that Podcast it was mentioned that Burfoot has a book out and if you email him he'll sign it with an appropriate message and post it.  Yesterday, I went onto the website and emailed the address.  I was expecting an assistant or department to email me back, but the email came from Burfoot himself (within only a couple of hours)!  I do feel a bit bad as he said he won't be able to deal with my request for a couple of weeks as he is on holiday....I'll let him off that!

Another book that was mentioned on Marathon Talk was back in episode 77 (I'm still going through the back catalogue).  It is a book called "Chasing The Runner's High" by Ray Charbonneau and it was only a couple of quid for a Kindle copy.  I'm only about half way through it, but I'm enjoying it.  It's not about running technique or anything - it's just about a guy who is a runner and it's some of his stories along the way and a lot of it rings true with me.


I've been really struggling with my training paces and Shades from the Runner's World thread that I frequent has helped me out with the paces I should be running, following my half time on the weekend.  In an attempt to make sure I stick to them I'm putting them on a separate page on this Blog for all to see.

Easy  9:30 to 10:00
Long 9:30 to 10:30
Tempo 7:45 to 8:00
Marathon pace 8:21

OK - the Marathon Pace seems a long way off, but I guess it's something to aim for!  The important thing for me from seeing those Easy and Long paces in black and white is....I must start slowing down on those LSRs!

In that respect, I did a slow 8-miler last night (I was supposed to do a recovery run on Monday, but I didn't get to do it).  I'm pleased to say that I averaged a slow and steady 09:43 and the splits were fairly consistent.  It did feel slow, but I think that's the point.  I have an 18-miler planned this weekend, so I'm aiming to do a similar, consistent slow and steady pace on that.  If I can get a LSR in and feel good afterwards, I know that will be a confidence booster.

Summary
 1:17:48.6 8.00 9:43
1 9:51.2 1.00 9:51
2 9:41.8 1.00 9:42
3 9:45.0 1.00 9:45
4 9:40.7 1.00 9:41
5 9:44.4 1.00 9:45
6 9:41.0 1.00 9:41
7 9:39.3 1.00 9:39
8 9:41.9 1.00 9:42